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| 1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people collected together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us a god, who will go before us; for this Moses, the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, --we do not know what is become of him! |
When the people – Having an "evil heart of unbelief." (Heb. 3:12). R3046:3
As our Lord came to his own and thev received him not, so at his second coming professed spiritual Israel did not receive him. R3047:5
They were unable to trust God whom they could not see after his representative, Moses, was out of sight. R5298:1
That Moses delayed – Similarly our Lord's absence was longer than had been expected and many claim that he will not come again. R3048:1
As for this Moses – At this very time, when the people were thus speaking lightly of him, Moses was importuning the Lord for them. R3046:5
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| 2 And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me. |
And Aaron – The weakness of Aaron is very markedly shown in this incident. R3046:6
The golden earrings – Possibly a subterfuge, hoping that by making this demand they would draw back and decline to part with their ornaments. R4022:4, R3046:6
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| 3 Then all the people broke off the golden rings that were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. |
And brought them – How many, in their worshiping of a sect or denomination, will strip themselves of their most valuable possessions. R4022:5
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| 4 And he took them out of their hand, and fashioned it with a chisel and made of it a molten calf: and they said, This is thy god, Israel, who has brought thee up out of the land of Egypt! |
A molten calf – Symbolizing Churchianity, as well as Mammon, the god of wealth, of money. R4022:6, R3047:3
Shall we, like Israel of old, turn to gods we formerly worshipped-gods of wealth or of pleasure. R5548:3
The Israelites probably recognized the golden calf as merely a symbol of Jehovah, just as the heathen use idols and some Christians use the crucifix as a representation of Christ. R5298:1, R4022:2, R3047:1
It is improbable that the jewelry would have been enough. Perhaps the calf was made of clay or wood and covered over with gold. R5298:2
Pictures the worship of self and the works of self, especially evidenced in Higher Criticism. R5267:3*
The sin of covetousness, the worship of Mammon, the idolatry of money, is the great sin of Christendom, the antitype of fleshly Israel. R1836:1
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| 5 And Aaron saw it, and built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah! |
An altar before it – It is but natural that we should sacrifice to whatever we set up in our hearts as an idol. If we know the things to which one sacrifices his best thoughts, time and influence, we can tell his idol. R4023:2
To the LORD – To Jehovah; showing that the idolatry here was not different from the kind practiced today in some Christian churches where images, pictures, crucifixes, etc. are worshipped. R3047:1, R5298:1, R4022:2
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| 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered up burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to sport. |
Rose up to play – Dances and supposedly lewd conduct, after the manner of heathen. R3047:2
Idolatry is not the blind adoration of superior dignity, but it is wilful and sinful devotion to degrading self-gratification. R1835:6
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| 7 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Away, go down! for thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, is acting corruptly. |
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| 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them: they have made themselves a molten calf, and have bowed down to it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, This is thy god, Israel, who has brought thee up out of the land of Egypt! |
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| 9 And Jehovah said to Moses, I see this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. |
Unto Moses – Moses was the Mediator of the Law covenant. Christ became the heir of its promises of life and the Mediator of the New covenant. R1725:4
Who acted representatively in bringing the Law covenant upon the Israelites, as Christ acted representatively in removing it. R1725:4, R5046:6
A stiffnecked people – Like an ox, difficult to turn about. R5387:3
Their stubborness will eventually show the mercy of God through his dealing with them. OV120:4
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| 10 And now let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation. |
I will make of thee – Showing how thoroughly Moses was the representative of the nation of Israel. R5046:5
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| 11 And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Why, Jehovah, doth thy wrath burn against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? |
Besought the LORD – He thus showed himself a worthy type of the great Mediator. R3046:5
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| 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For misfortune he has brought them out, to slay them on the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth? Turn from the heat of thine anger, and repent of this evil against thy people! |
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| 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thyself, and saidst to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall possess it for ever! |
Remember Abraham – The Jews were not selected because they were holier or better than others, but for their fathers' sakes God chose them. R5917:3
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| 14 And Jehovah repented of the evil that he had said he would do to his people. |
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| 15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand--tables written on both their sides: on this side and on that were they written. |
And went down – His return to the people from Mt. Sinai corresponded to the second coming of Christ. R1836:4
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| 16 And the tables were God's work, and the writing was God's writing, engraven on the tables. |
And the tables – Representing the perfection of our race as originally created. R2196:4
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| 17 And Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, and said to Moses, There is a shout of war in the camp. |
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| 18 And he said, It is not the sound of a shout of victory, neither is it the sound of a shout of defeat: it is the noise of alternate singing I hear. |
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| 19 And it came to pass, when he came near the camp, and saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses' anger burned, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and shattered them beneath the mountain. |
Anger waxed hot – As the Mediator between God and Israel--the representative of both--he had a right to be angry, realizing what a serious crime had taken place. R5298:2, R5547:2
Cast the tables – Type of the Law covenant. D631
And brake them – Representing the failure of the Law covenant by reason of the "weakness of the flesh." D631
Indicating that the covenant was broken. R5298:2
The first tables, prepared by the Lord himself, represents how Adam was created perfect, needing no other law than that which was in himself. But this law was broken and the original tables are shattered and have grown illegible. R5298:6
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| 20 And he took the calf that they had made, and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it2. |
in the fire – Symbolizes the destruction of hoarded wealth in the great time of trouble. R1836:4
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| 21 And Moses said to Aaron, What has this people done to thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin on them? |
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| 22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord burn! thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. |
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| 23 And they said to me, Make us a god, who will go before us; for this Moses, the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him! |
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| 24 And I said to them, Who has gold? They broke it off, and gave it me, and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. |
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| 25 And Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to their shame before their adversaries. |
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| 26 And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, He that is for Jehovah, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered to him. |
Then Moses – Our Lord is even now standing at the gate calling, as did Moses in the type, "Who is on the Lord's side?" R3048:2
All the sons of Levi – Typical of the "Israelites indeed" at both the first and second advents. R3047:5
Typical of the "household of faith" of the Gospel age. R3047:3
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| 27 And he said to them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Put every man his sword upon his hip; go and return from gate to gate through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour. |
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| 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. |
About 3000 men – The leaders of the people. R3047:3
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| 29 And Moses said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to Jehovah, yea, every man with his son, and with his brother, and bring on yourselves a blessing to-day. |
Consecrate yourselves – Consecrate anew today, not invalidating the consecration made once for all, but re-affirming and emphasizing that covenant. R1281:3
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| 30 And it came to pass the next day, that Moses said to the people, Ye have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to Jehovah: perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin. |
Sinned a great sin – In their trial of faith and obedience they failed utterly. The covenant was broken. R5297:3
God was greatly displeased with their symbolic representation of himself. R5298:1
I will go up – As Moses went up to make reconciliation for their sins, so Christ, as the High Priest, ascended to make atonement for the sins of the people. R3047:5
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| 31 And Moses returned to Jehovah, and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin, and they have made themselves a god of gold! |
And Moses – As God's representative on the one hand, and Israel's on the other, Moses could be the Mediator of the Law covenant between God and that nation. R1725:4, R5046:6
Type of Christ. D630; A79, B255
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| 32 And now, if thou wilt forgive their sin...but if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book that thou hast written. |
Forgive their sin – After punishing them, God renewed the covenant with them. R5297:3
Blot me, I pray thee, out – As Moses here staked his own eternal existence for the benefit of the people, so the life of Christ was staked for the benefit of the race he died to redeem. R4023:5
Moses was a patriot of the highest order: loyal, as Israel's representative, and at the same time loyal to God, whom he also represented. R5298:3, R3048:4
There was not a particle of selfishness on his own part; a very noble character, worthy to be compared to our Lord Jesus Christ, who risked the blotting out of his own life on our behalf. Q537:3
This finds two parallels in Scripture: David weeping for Absalom, "Would God I had died for thee" (2 Sam. 18:33); and St. Paul's words, "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren according to the flesh." (Rom. 9:3) R4278:2
Of thy book – The book of God's remembrance, the book of life. Q537:3
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| 33 And Jehovah said to Moses, Whoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. |
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| 34 And now go, lead the people whither I have told thee: behold, my Angel shall go before thee; but in the day of my visiting I will visit their sin upon them. |
Lead the people – Typifying our Mediator, who has actually given his life for us in order to bring whosoever wills back into full accord with God. R3048:5
Unto the place – The Edenic conditions, the land of promise. R3048:5
Their sin upon them – So it will be during the Millennial age. Men will receive stripes or chastisements in proportion as they participated willingly or knowingly in a course of sin. R3048:5
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| 35 And Jehovah smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron had made. |
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